# CVE-2017-12222: Denial of service in Cisco IOS XE

> An unauthenticated adjacent attacker can cause a denial of service on Cisco Catalyst switches acting as wireless controllers by sending a crafted association request.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.0/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 28 Sep 2017
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-h5jp-68rm-94gf

## What is CVE-2017-12222?

CVE-2017-12222 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe, published on 28 Sep 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A vulnerability in the wireless controller manager of Cisco IOS XE could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause a restart of the switch and result in a denial of service (DoS) condition. The vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting a crafted association request. An exploit could allow the attacker to cause the switch to restart. This vulnerability affects Cisco Catalyst 3650 and 3850 switches running IOS XE Software versions 16.1 through 16.3.3, and acting as wireless LAN controllers (WLC). Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvd45069.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation), CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2017-12222?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Cisco Ios Xe.

## How do I fix CVE-2017-12222?

No fix has been published for CVE-2017-12222 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2017-12222 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-12222 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Ios Xe

- [CVE-2023-20198](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20198/): Cisco IOS XE Web UI Privilege Escalation (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2018-0151](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-0151/): Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software Quality of Service Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2023-20273](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-20273/): Cisco IOS XE Web UI Command Injection (high 7.2, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-20188](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-20188/): Hardcoded credentials in Cisco IOS XE Software (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2021-34770](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-34770/): Cisco IOS XE Software for Catalyst 9000 Family Wireless Controllers CAPWAP Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2017-12222 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2017-12222 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Ios Xe, published on 28 Sep 2017. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2017-12222 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Ios Xe. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12222/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12222/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2017-12222
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2017-12222
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2017-12222

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-12222/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.